Skahill said that ham radio was one of the first widely-used wireless technologies. "Ham radios don't use transmission wires," he said. They use nature's built-in phone line, the ionosphere, reflecting speed-of-light signals from radios off the atmosphere -- which, these days, can carry those signals thousands of miles, even off the surface of the moon; even around the entire globe."

Hiram Percy, of ham radio and wonderful hair.

Credit Library of Congress

What's the Hartford connection to ham radio? Sean Kutzko of the ARRL said it all goes back to a guy named Hiram Percy Maxim, one of the co-founders of the ARRL. Maxim was an inventor, and he came from a family of inventors. His dad invented something called a “Maxim machine gun,” and his uncle developed an explosive called “Maximite.”

Percy also dabbled in amateur radio. As Kutzko explains, a meeting of the Radio Club of Hartford in 1914 would change ham radio history forever.

Maxim told the club he was trying to send a message from Hartford to Springfield. "He was having difficulty doing so," Kutzko said. "He knew an amateur operator about midway between Hartford and Springfield, Mass., which is only about 60 miles … so he gave his message to the station midway. That was what sparked the notion of having relay stations set up around the country, and was how the American Radio Relay League was born."

Related Content

This month marks the centennial of the American Radio Relay League, the largest ham radio association in the United States. That means it will be a special year for the hundreds who converge annually on W1AW, a small station known as "the mecca of ham radio" in Newington, Conn., to broadcast radio signals across the globe.

Author Dan Brown has written some of the biggest blockbuster books, from The Da Vinci Code to his latest book, Inferno. He’s coming to Hartford next month to talk with John Dankosky at the Bushnell. This hour, he joins us for a preview of that conversation.

Is scientific research unbiased and objective, or have money and politics gotten in the way? We've seen a steady stream of books charging scientists with the inability to deliver unbiased information. Today we'll explore this question with science journalist and host of NPR's Science Friday Ira Flatow.